Can i upgrade to GTX 980?

Larry Litmanen

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Jan 22, 2015
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First of all here are my specs

i7-4790, GTX 960 2 GB, Liquid Cooler Seidon 120V, SSD-850 Pro, 8 GBs of RAM, 2 7200 HDD, and 4 120 mm fans, display is a 32 inch TV, i may or may not upgrade to a better monitor down the road.

So here's the situation, my brother has a GTX 980 in his system, i am not sure as to what kind, but i am sure it is a regular one and not factory OCd or anything like that. He never was a gamer so he said he can give me his 980 if i will give him my 960.

Here's the thing, my PSU is 550 W and i do not want to change it, i don't have the time or desire to do all of that now so the only way i will do the change is if i can use my existing PSU.

This is my exact PSU

XFX XTR Series P1-550B-BEFX 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC With Full Modular Cables

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207032

I looked at a few online PSU requirements websites, one from NewEgg and they told me i need a 700+ PSU and one from some other site and it said that with a 980 i would need around 480W, so 550W would work for me.

So can i keep my PSU and make a switch to a 980?
 
The answer depends on the make of card. Some require 500W, some require 600W. It really does depend. That said, in terms of connectors, your PSU should be fine (it states that it contains multiple 6+2 pin PCIe connectors).
So until we know the exact model of your brother's 980, I can't give you a definitive answer.
 


OK, ill follow up tomorrow. But he got his PC in Walmart, so i am sure it is as generic of a 980 as it can be.



 
From eteknix.
Power consumption with the following system:

Motherboard – ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 LGA 2011 Motherboard
Processor – Intel Core i7 4960X at Stock 3.6GHz with Turbo Mode disabled
RAM – 16GB (2 X 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 1866MHz at 9-10-9-27
CPU Cooler – Corsair H100i with Quiet Fan Profile with Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound
Power Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W
Main Storage Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD
Chassis – Lian Li T60 Test Bench
Displays – Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp
Operating System – Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

Results
Gigabyte_GTX980_g1gaming_graphs_power.png


The unigine is what you'd expect under a standard gaming load.